


The Other Side

by AppleTeeth



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-17
Updated: 2012-06-17
Packaged: 2017-11-07 23:50:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleTeeth/pseuds/AppleTeeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint witnesses first hand just how good a hero the Hulk is. The only problem is, once the Hulk has finished his job and lets the little guy return, Bruce is not convinced this is the case and it's up to Clint to set the record straight.</p><p> </p><p>This is from a series of one-shots I was writing about Bruce and his relationships with the rest of the team and how they perceive him. I've got a massive love for Hulk and Hawkeye in Avengers EMH so I expanded this into a full idea. I really like the idea of people defending the Hulk, and especially to Bruce who never gets to see first-hand what his other side can do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Side

Some time between their discovery of a bomb set to explode right by Stark Tower and somebody opening fire, Bruce had lost every shred of self-control he used to stay calm and the Hulk emerged. Within seconds the huge, lurching beast had jumped from the fiftieth floor window and was heading straight into the chaos before the rest of the team could suit up.

And it was chaos. Natasha had a good hold of the squad of shooters in one building, but she was having trouble clearing the area of snipers. Thor and Captain America were on the ground, making sure to protect the people running frantically through the streets, directing them away from where the bomb was set to go off whilst also handling their own set of goons. Tony was at the bombsite, trying to either dismantle or remove it. The problem was, it was heavily guarded with hired goons who didn’t seem to mind they were in the line of fire.

 _That’s the problem with goons_ , Clint thought as he climbed up the stairs to the top of the apartment block directly across from the building with the bomb. _They’re always in it for the money._

He fired two shots out of the fifteenth storey window and then headed up the next flight. At every floor, he found a window and took aim at those after his team-mates. He saw the Hulk jumping up so high until he couldn’t see him.

“Uh, guys? Where’s our green friend going?”

And then he heard it. The sound of something heavy and powerful slamming into the side of something metal. Then he heard shooting.

“They’ve got an aircraft! Why didn’t we see that?” Tony yelled. “Someone take over bomb duty. Thor, help me out?”

“With great pleasure,” Thor replied and Clint saw both of them flying towards the aircraft to help the Hulk take it down.

“Tasha, you any good with bombs?” Clint asked.

“As good as you are!” she yelled and he heard an onslaught of guns opening fire. “But I’m a little preoccupied.”

“Barton, can you dismantle it?” Cap asked.

Clint didn’t answer. He jumped out of the window, fired his arrow towards the building across the street and swung into the building where the bomb and the gang of bad guys stood.

He didn’t know what was happening with the rest of the team as he made his way to the ground floor, taking out goons as they came at him.

 _Oh good_ , he thought, _I get to use my fun arrows._

Smoke bombs and multiple-mini explosions were released and soon he was on the ground floor where in the lobby of what was usually used as a hotel was the bomb. It wasn’t like his training. He was trained with the sort of bombs people made in their garages, or the ones the military used in their missions. This was complex and probably wouldn’t be found in any SHIELD manual.

“Tony? Could you talk me through this?”

There was a long pause before Tony said, “We’re a little busy, pal. Just get the bomb out of here.”

Clint very much doubted he could move it. It looked big enough to be able to take out the entire state and beyond. Maybe the entire North East. There was no countdown clock. No buttons or dials. It was a massive, humming instrument and it looked ready to go off any second.

“Guys, we’ve got to evacuate!” he said, nervously stepping back. The humming was getting louder. “Guys, clear the area! Get everyone as far away as you—“

Glass showered him from above and all he saw was a glint of green before an almighty arm grabbed him like a person would grab a mouse. He was hurtled to the ground and he saw the Hulk throw himself over the bomb.

“Bruce, what…?” he tried to ask but the Hulk growled angrily at him.

“Get back!” he yelled and Clint didn’t need telling twice. He ducked in the corner just as he heard the sound of a very big and real explosion hitting his teammate straight in the gut.

The entire room was breaking. Clint curled up his body as bricks and glass was being fired towards him. He saw the roof caving in above him and for the first time in his life, he was completely frozen.

And then darkness surrounded him. He thought the roof had landed on him until the darkness roared loudly. Not over-thinking what the Hulk was doing, Clint huddled next to the massive body as the world seemed to fall around them.

 

“Bruce? You with me, buddy?”

His eyes opened slowly to see a low grey cloud floating above them and the sound of rubble crumbling close by. There was that shallow, sharp pain behind his eyes and a green hue whenever he blinked. His entire body ached like he had swam across an ocean or two.

“Banner?”

“Yes?” he asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. The green hue was fading, the headache lessening, his body restoring.

“Welcome back,” Clint smiled and offered a hand to help Bruce to his feet. He stumbled as he got up and Clint took an arm to help keep him steady.

It was then that Bruce could see the devastation around him. Half of the building they were in had collapsed; the roof missing, pipes torn from the flooring, every inner wall destroyed in some way or another.

“What did I do?” he asked, his legs feeling weak once more.

“Woah, easy there,” Clint said and swung Bruce’s arm over his shoulders. “I don’t think you’ve recovered quite yet.”

“Did I--” he didn’t want to ask, but his mind was aching as he tried to piece together the evidence around him and figure out what had happened. Who he had hurt. How many he had killed, possibly.

“You, buddy, saved all our lives,” Clint informed him as he walked Bruce over to what looked like the main street beyond the destroyed building. He spoke into his communication device, “Guys? He’s up. He’s a little shaken but he’s fine.”

“I only remember the guns, and people screaming, and then...” he blinked slowly. “Clint, promise me I didn’t hurt anyone.”

“Well, you kicked some major bad-guy ass. You threw a guy into the pavement so hard he made a crater. It was like a man-shaped pot hole.”

“That’s not...” he stopped and Clint stopped walking too. “That’s not funny. I don’t know what happens, who I hurt, what I do.”

“ _You,_ ” his emphasis was followed by a poke in his chest, “take a long nap. The Hulk gets his smashing on and serves as a great ally. And cut the Big Guy some credit, he stopped a serious bomb attack on a major city whilst rescuing our asses from an aerial assault we didn’t see coming.”

“You don’t get it!” Bruce sighed, his fingers pinching his nose once more.

“No, you don’t get it. I’m sick of you thinking you’ve hurt people or caused chaos whenever you go all green. I’ll have you know not ten minutes ago I was about to die in a firey bomb that ripped through this entire building and I didn’t have an escape plane. The Hulk got me away and took the entire force of the blast head on and he didn’t let me move until he knew I was safe. So don’t you wake up and make out he just clobbered a bunch of people for fun.”

There was a long silence, where the only sounds were of far-away sirens and the building losing more and more of its structure as bricks tumbled from the gutted walls.

“I’m sorry,” Bruce said finally. “It’s just hard... really hard, when you wake up and don’t know what’s happened. He used to destroy things, and hurt people, when it first... when I first changed. I couldn’t speak to him, couldn’t do anything, didn’t even know if I would ever wake up again. It still scares me whenever I... when he is called upon. It takes a long time to realise he’s on my side when I always wake up in the middle of a demolition.”

“You’re the Hulk’s worst enemy,” Clint observed.

Bruce let out a huff of air that’s almost a snort. It’s the closest Clint had ever heard to him laughing.

“That’s true. And he’s mine.”

They were quiet for a moment, just taking in what the other had said. Clint knew Bruce had a point. If he changed into something massive and violent every time he so much as got stressed out, he would be terrified too. And Bruce knew that out of the team, he was probably the most afraid of the Hulk. He vowed to try to change that.

“To be fair, I thought he was a fucking mindless wrecking ball when I first heard of him. I didn’t realise he was capable of being such a badass until you started working for us.”

“Probably because he was attacking every SHIELD agent that came hear him.”

Clint dipped his head to one side. “Pretty much.”

He put Bruce’s arm over his shoulders once more. Bruce found his footing and walked alongside him.

“Now let’s find you some pants,” Clint declared happily.

“You know, I get the feeling you prefer the Other Guy to me,” Bruce said. His teammate turned to him and realised that Bruce was smiling. That he was joking.

“Well you’ve got to stop walking around naked. Maybe then I’ll like you.”


End file.
